Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/505

 COWPER 485 III. 1764. 3. George Nassau (Clavering-Cowper), Earl Cow- PER, &c., only s. and h., by ist wife, l>. 16 Aug., and l>ap. 17 Sep. 1738, at St. Geo., Han. Sq., the King, George III, and the Princess Amelia, his sponsors, being present; an officer in the army 1757; M.P. (Whig) for Hertford 1759-61; Knight of St. Hubert of Bavaria. F.R.S. 13 Feb. 1777. Having, on 5 Dec. 1754, by the death of his grandfather, the Earl of Grantham abovenamed, inherited his estates, he was, by pat. dat. at Vienna, 31 Jan. 1778, cr. by Joseph II, a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire,(f) with a rem. to him and the heirs male of his body (as the representative of the Counts of Nassau d'Auverquerque), and obtained Royal lie. 19 Aug. 1785 to accept the same. He ;«., z June 1775, ^'^ Florence (reg. at Leghorn), Hannah Anne, da. and coh. of Charles Gore, of Horke- stowe, CO. Lincoln. He d. at FlorencejC") 22 Dec. 1789, and was bur. 1 7 Feb. i790,atHertingfordbury, aged 51. Will dat. 22 Aug. I788,pr. 8 Jan. 1790. His widow d. 5 Sep. 1826, at her villa, "del Cipresso," near Florence, aged 68, and was bur. at Leghorn. M.I. Will pr. Apr. 1827. IV. 1789. 4. George Augustus (Cl..vering-Cowper), Earl CowPER, isc, 1st s. and h., b. 9 Aug. 1776, at Florence; ed. at St. John's Coll. Cambridge, M.A. 1795. ^^ ^- unm., at Cole Green, Herts, of hemorrhage on the lungs, 12, and was bur. 19 Feb. 1799, at Hertingfordburj-, aged 22. Will dat. 17 Oct. 1795, P''- 9 ^'^^X I799- V, 1799. 5. Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau (Clavering- Cowper or Cowper), Earl Cowper, tfc, br. and h., b. 6 May 1778, at Florence; matric. at Oxford (Ch. Ch.), 20 Mar. 1794, B.A. 1797; Student (Mid. Temple), 1794; F.R.S. 11 May 1809. A Whig. (*) " Sacri Romani Imperil Princepi de Cowper" says the patent. In the obituary notice in the Neu: London Magazine, Feb. 1790, it is stated that "it is by mistake that he was called a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, for no man can be a Prince of the Empire who does not possess the landed territory in the Empire from which he derives his title, and a seat in the Diet among the Princes." The Lordship of Mindelheim in Suabia, which was granted to the Duke of Marlborough and erected into a Principality (he being thereupon admitted, by his deputy, to sit in the College of Princes), is quoted as an example; it being added "this never was the case with the late Earl Cowper, who was no otherwise a Prince of the Empire, than that his present Imperial Majesty created him a Prince of the Milanese, one of his Italian provinces, which is considered as a fief, and consequently a branch of the Empire. His Lordship therefore was, strictly speaking, a Prince of AH Ian in the Holy Roman Empire." However this may be, he appears to have obtained this great honour at the request of the Emperor's brother, Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Countess being at that time "distinguished by his attachment." In 1786, however, '■'■her attachment " was to Mr. Merr}', the poet (known as " Delia Crusca '"), according to Mrs. Piozzi. See Wheadey's IFraxall's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 195. C>) It was during his stay in this city that he secured the two magnificent Raphaels which still (1913) adorn Panshanger.